Looks very much as if the LibDems are genetically unable to handle power...Vince Cable declaring "war" on that odious jew Rupert Murdoch...

Quote:

Business Secretary Vince Cable blocks Rupert Murdoch's bid to buy Sky

By Bob Roberts 5/11/2010
Business Secretary Vince Cable enraged Tory allies yesterday by blocking Rupert Murdoch's £12billion bid to take over Sky.
The Lib Dem said he wanted broadcast regulators to look at whether it would give Conservative supporter Murdoch too much power over the British media.
Murdoch already controls 37% of Britain's national newspapers and has a 39% stake in Sky television.
It is feared allowing his News Corp to take full control of Sky would lead to price rises for pay TV and undermine the impartiality of news channels.
Tory sources made clear their fury that one of their key allies, and Mr Cameron's first visitor in Downing Street after the election, was being hampered in his ambition to increase his in the UK. But a spokesman for the PM said: "The Business Secretary has made his decision."
Mr Cable said his main concern was to ensure "plurality" of media in the UK - a large range of outlets with a variety of different views and owners.
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Broadcast regulator Ofcom will now look at the plans and report back by the end of the year. It is likely to refer the matter to the Competition Commis-sion, which could delay the whole takeover plan by a year or scupper it.
Sly Bailey, chief executive of Daily Mirror parent company Trinity Mirror, welcomed the news. She was one of a group of media figures who had written to Mr Cable urging him to intervene.
She said: "We welcome the fact the Business Secretary has issued an intervention notice requiring Ofcom to investigate the public interest concerns of media plurality arising from News Corpopower ration's proposal to take over BSkyB.
We look forward to making our submission in due course.
"News Corporation already controls 37% of the national newspaper market and if its plans go ahead it would also control a huge chunk of the pay TV market. That's bad news for consumers because the proposed takeover of BSkyB increases the dominance of News Corporation and reduces the plurality of news sources. Allowing such a dominant force to be created also increases the likelihood of the market being distorted through the bundling of products and services such as newspapers and tablet applications with a Sky subscription, which is damaging to competition."
Shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis added: "There's a case to answer."
News Corp said its proposed bid would not impact media plurality.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today tried to play down reports of rifts within the Government amid fresh disclosures that Liberal Democrat ministers had privately criticised coalition policies.
Scottish Secretary Michael Moore, Business Minister Ed Davey and Pensions Minister Steve Webb were caught on tape by undercover reporters from The Daily Telegraph speaking out against a range of Government positions. Related articles

The revelations came after Business Secretary Vince Cable was yesterday humiliatingly stripped of his responsibilities for the media after he claimed to have "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
Mr Clegg said that Mr Cable's comments had been "very unfortunate" but insisted that the matter had been dealt with.
"I think now Vince and the Government can move on and that is the end of it," he told reporters as he left his London home.
He also sought to play down the comments by his fellow ministers - including Mr Moore who said that cutting Child Benefit for higher-rate taxpayers was "blatantly not a consistent and fair thing to do", Mr Davey who said he was "gobsmacked" by the decision, and Mr Webb who said "the details aren't right".
"I don't think we should be surprised about the reports of what other ministers have said - that there are differences of opinion in a coalition, as there are indeed in all governments," Mr Clegg said.
"The most important thing is that we get on and work together in the coalition Government to fix the mess that we have inherited from Labour. That is what people expect from us and that's exactly what we are doing."
There were signs of unease within the Tory ranks at the latest criticisms from Lib Dem ministers, with some senior Conservatives complaining that Mr Cable had only kept his job for the sake of coalition unity.
John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said that Mr Cable would "almost certainly" have been sacked if he was a Tory minister.
"I'm not happy, but nevertheless I accept that in a coalition we have to do things to keep our partners in the coalition content," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
"Equally, it's quite plain that Vince Cable is the second most important Liberal member of the coalition. We have already lost one leading Liberal minister and the feeling was we cannot afford to lose another."
According to the latest Daily Telegraph disclosures, Mr Moore described the increase in university tuition fees to a maximum £9,000 as "the biggest, ugliest, most horrific thing in all of this... a car crash, a train wreck", said the paper.
He told the reporters, who were posing as constituents: "I signed a pledge that promised not to do this. I've just done the worst crime a politician can commit, the reason most folk distrust us as a breed. I've had to break a pledge and very, very publicly."
Mr Moore said the move was "deeply damaging" to Lib Dems, who had promised to abolish fees, but added: "What we've all had to weigh up is the greater sense of what the coalition is about."
Mr Webb expressed "worries" about the Child Benefit cut which will hit couples where one partner earns just over the £42,000 higher-rate threshold but not those with two partners earning just below that level.
"I have written to the Treasury about this and, to be honest, the answer I got back wasn't good enough," he said.
"I don't have a problem with the general principle but I don't think the way we're doing it is terribly clever."
Mr Davey said that plans to limit housing benefit would hit some of the poorest in society.
"Their housing benefit cuts are going to mean in my view, if they go through, that some people who are on the breadline will be put below the breadline. And that's just deeply unacceptable," he said.
Mr Moore was also quoted as saying the coalition had "marginalised" the Conservative right wing, which, he said, "hate us with a passion - and I can't say it's unreciprocated".
Insisting that Lib Dem ministers "remain passionately Liberal Democrat", the Scottish Secretary said some Conservative ministers were "on a different planet" and he and Defence Secretary Liam Fox "probably couldn't stay in the same situation for very long" if they were discussing a wide range of policies.
Mr Webb said that Lib Dems had acted behind the scenes to stop a lot of Tory proposals, but admitted they risked looking "too cosy" with their coalition partners by hiding their differences in public.
"There's a lot of stuff that goes on behind you know. A lot of things that will never see the light of day because we stop them," he said.
"But if people see us sniping at each other and bickering publicly ... I know we perhaps risk looking a bit too lovey dovey don't we, that's the problem, it looks a bit too cosy."
Mr Moore told the undercover reporters that the decision to cut child benefit "came out of nowhere" and created an "anomaly" which would hit stay-at-home mothers.
And Mr Davey said the change had come "out of the blue" at the Conservative Party conference and could have been done in "a rather fairer way" if there had been more consultation.
"I had no knowledge of it and suddenly they announced it and I have to say I was as shocked as everyone else," Mr Davey was reported as saying.
"I mean, I'm going to lose about £1,000 a year. And I was, frankly, gobsmacked when it came."
A Liberal Democrat spokesman said: "In coalition it is obviously no surprise that the parties have different views and opinions.
"We campaigned on two very different platforms in the election, but came together in the national interest to put Britain on a stable footing following the mistakes of the previous government."
Shadow work and pensions secretary Douglas Alexander said: "Government ministers are only saying in private what we have been saying in public - their changes to Child Benefit are ill thought-out and unfair.
"Once again the Lib Dems are taking the heat today but it is David Cameron who should be under pressure, when two of his Cabinet colleagues are now admitting that his Government's Child Benefit plans are unfair.
"It's increasingly obvious just how little influence the Lib Dems have on this Tory-led Government."
The Scottish National Party's leader in Westminster and defence spokesman Angus Robertson seized on Mr Moore's comments about Dr Fox as a sign that the Liberal Democrat leader is not able to "bat for Scotland".
Mr Robertson said: "Scotland is facing a long list of disproportionate defence cuts and we now learn that the Scottish Secretary doesn't feel able to deal with the Defence Secretary.
"We need clarity from Michael Moore whether he is going to bat for Scotland or continue to act against his principles and the interests of people in Scotland.
"The future of defence bases, service families and local communities is at stake and we need ministers who will fight for them.
"This underlines why defence decisions should be taken in Scotland, and not left as a plaything for Westminster politicians."

Of course LibDems are unfit for any form of government. I've noticed that many of them have terrible inferiority complexes, especially when it comes to the House of Commons Debating Chamber. Old neurotic men like Vince Cable end up being treated like mice, and widely ridiculed. Nick Clegg now has to be driven around in bomb-proof car because of his unpopularity. David Cameron knows how unpopular the LibDems are, and gives the LibDem Ministers all the sh*t jobs to do, which drives the nails even deeper into their coffin.

David Cameron isn't as brain dead as he appears to be. He is obviously using the Lib Dems as a political cover for unpopular policies and to shield the Conservative Party from the 'nasty party' jibe. What are the Lib Dems getting in return for this? A referendum on the 'alternative vote' system which is a barely-modified version of the existing system and is NOT a system of PR which is the only way to correct FPTP's most glaring defect ie its total lack of proportionality. The Lib Dems must realise that this referendum is likely to fail.

If the Tories were genuinely in favour of a proper coaliton, they would be offering a referendum on PR and not doing as they are doing ie using the Lib Dems as cover and then altering the existing boundaries of seats in the hope that the Lib Dems take the flak from the public at the next election whilst they gain a majority and the Lib Dems go back to being a parlimentary party you could fit inside of a taxi. The Tories as 'users'. Who would have thought it?

I don't think any 'cracks' are starting to form in this coalition. Cable is an old man who people are looking to put out to pasture anyway, he isn't going to bring anything down. His ego is so big he's just trying to make a name for himself before he pops his clogs. The only thing he's ever done in his life is when he (famously) predicted 7 out of the last 4 recessions!

Those in the coalition are gradually developing a taste for the trappings of office. They're becoming as corrupted as the Tories and Labour (if one can imagine such a thing), and won't want to give up their very cushty lifestyles. I think this coalition will be here for a long time to come, and the only way Labour will get rid of it, is by offering a coalition with THEM and the lib-dems.